The Woods
by stillhiding
Summary: Holly gets assigned to a case on the night of Valentines Day. One-shot. Not at all related to This Thing.


Holly was furiously typing at her keyboard. All she wanted to do was finish the last report she had for the day and go home to Gail for a wonderful home-cooked meal like she was promised. Over the past year and a half she realized that Gail had told the truth – she really did know how to cook.

Just then, her supervisor had shown up to her office in the morgue, knocking on the door before entering. "Hey Holly, I know you really wanted to get out of here but we're going to need you out on the field to collect some samples. 15 found a body in the woods".

She felt her heart drop – _great_. "Is Thomas still around? Would he be able to tag along so it moves a little faster?" she asked, praying that the intern was.

"Sorry Holly, all on you tonight, he left already" she said, giving a pitiful smile and leaving.

She rose from her chair and pulled her phone out of her bag. She tapped her thumbs quickly across the screen. "_I might be home a little later than I had planned to be. I'm the only one that's available in the morgue right now. I'm really sorry babe, love you._"

* * *

As she got closer to the general area where she was told to go, she noticed the two cop cars that had responded to the scene and pulled over to the side of the road. When she put her car in park she couldn't help thinking that she had been in the exact same spot before but she couldn't quite place her thumb on why it seemed so familiar. She pulled her sample bag out of the backseat and began heading towards the woods where it had been taped off by the officers.

She grasped the tape with one hand and lifted it over her head, walking under it and down the hill. _That's why it was so familiar_! Soon she realized that it was the same wooded area where she had first been assaulted by the snide remarks of her now girlfriend Officer Peck. It brought a smile to her face as she glanced down at her bag and remembered Gail calling her 'Lunchbox' and being floored when Holly rambled on about diatoms and femurs.

A familiar face came into view at the bottom of the hill. "Hey Traci, you're not with Steve tonight?" she asked sympathetically.

"Oh hey Holly! Actually, we're sort of together. I'm doing my detective stuff and he's just down that pathway. We think it might be a guns and gangs case. So I guess you're not with Gail then huh?" she asked, placing her hand on Holly's shoulder.

"We had plans, but I was the only one in the morgue soooo here I am"

"Well it looks like we picked a bad day to find this girl then. Come on, let me take you to where she is" Traci said as she began to walk in front of Holly through the path.

* * *

As the branches began to clear, Holly noticed that it was quite a crime scene after all. There were twinkling lights hung from the trees around them and even more faces she seemed to recognize from 15.

She couldn't speak. She couldn't find the words that she had wanted to say and she noticed that she was so mesmerized that her pace slowed to take everything in and Traci was now leading her by the hand through the crowd of smiling officers.

When they all had moved aside, that's when she saw her. Gail was standing in front of her looking more nervous than she ever had seen.

"Hey Lunchbox" she smiled.

Holly giggled and suddenly she became shy, a blush creeping into her cheeks as she tried to stare her girlfriend in the eyes. "Gail…what is this?"

Gail reached for her hands, entwining their fingers together and closing a little bit more space between them. "Holly this past year has been crazy, hectic, and sometimes chaotic, but it's also been full of excitement, happiness, and new beginnings. Even though it sounds exaggerated, I can honestly say that it's easily been the best year of my life. I've never laughed more, smiled more, cared more, or even loved more than I have this past year and the only thing that's changed is that you've come into it"

"And thank God for that" Dov called out, causing laughter from the other officers.

"That first day I spent with you at the morgue I was just absolutely floored. I thought you were probably the smartest person I'd ever met. And I don't know why, but I told you I was a cat. Out of all things I could've said to you that's what it was and I still kick myself for making that analogy. It freaked me out how easily it was to talk to you and be around you. To just sit in a coat closet and talk aimlessly – even though being under the influence probably had something to do with that -, and even going to the batting cages and making a complete fool of myself. There's not a day when I don't think about the interrogation room. When everything was a disaster and I had to hold it together, hearing you say all that you did was like a tonne of bricks hitting me. I saw how much you cared, how much of an idiot I'd be if I ever be the cat with you. And when I kissed you-"

"_HA_! I knew it, Peck!" Oliver shouted.

She chuckled before continuing, "When I kissed you, it felt like my heart was ripped out and my feelings were splattered everywhere. I knew that I wanted to be more than just a friend"

Holly's eyes began to water as she stood there hearing all that Gail had to say and she had to fight to keep the tears from running down her cheeks, but it was a losing battle.

Gail wiped Holly's wet cheeks and went on. "When I first realized that I love you, it sounds dorky and nerdy and cheesy, but I wanted to scream it from the CN Tower. You are this amazingly gorgeous, funny, witty, smart, sexy, nerdy woman and that doesn't even begin to explain all the good things about you. You love more than I've ever known anyone to love and I can't imagine my future being with anyone else but you"

She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a sky blue case, opening it to reveal a stunning ring on the inside. "Holly Stewart, giant nerd, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you and making you do that stupidly cute grin you always do. There's nothing more in this entire world I'd rather do than keep growing with you and be able to call you my wife. Will you marry me?"

Holly crashed her lips onto Gail's. "God, I love you so much" she said between their kisses.

"Was that a yes?"

"Yes that's a yes, just kiss me" they both laughed.


End file.
